CDS Say They Are In Colima To Fight the CJNG & Name The CJNG Colima Leaders, Including Mencho's Son-In-Law

"HEARST", "Itzli", and "Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

A new narco message banner placed in the state of Colima announces that the Sinaloa Cartel is in the state and they plan on warring against the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generation (CJNG). In the banner, they also name out some of the top CJNG leadership figures for the state.

The Sinaloa Cartel Narco Banner

As recently covered on Borderland Beat, there has been a sudden outbreak of violence in the state of Colima within the last week. This outbreak is due to a part of the local CJNG group who decided to break off from the main organization and start a war against them. They are called “Los Mezcales” and they have been leaving narco message banners which discuss how the CJNG was planning on killing the new governor of the state Indira Vizcaíno Silva. 

On the morning of February 9, 2022, a new narco message banner was discovered on Liceo de Varones Avenue in the city of Colima, within the state of the same name. 

The message read as follows, as translated by Sol Prendido: 

Look here you fucking Jaliscos. Stop killing innocent civilians. It hurt your feelings that I refused to kill Indira because I let you down. According to you guys fear isn’t something you have. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you're fighting against El Marro here. 

For the government personnel, it’s not that I’m trying to help you guys out. We’re locals so don’t get involved with us. Julio Alberto Castillo Rodríguez alias “El Mayate”, Aldrin Miguel Jarquín Jarquín, Cómala, Vaquero, and Alejandro Ochoa Paz alias “El Marino”. 

I want it to be made clear that this conflict is motherfucker against motherfucker. Don’t mess with the family in light of the fact that you guys also have families. You all know who I am, The Guy Whose Balls Are Dragging On The Ground. Everyone who is supporting the Jalisco gunmen in one form or another I will begin to kill off. He who warns in advance is not a traitor. 

Also we’re not Los Mezcales. 

We are the absolute Cartel de Sinaloa. 

In order to really drill down on the meaning of the last part, the spanish reads: 

y no somos Los Mezcales. 

Somos puro Cartel de Sinaloa.

Which can be translated as: 

And we are not Los Mezcales.

We are the absolute Cartel de Sinaloa.

It seems, based on the message, that the Sinaloa Cartel (Cártel de Sinaloa, CDS) wants to make sure they are not mistaken from the CJNG splinter group Los Mezcales or the group no longer wants to be referred to as Los Mezcales as they’re now aligned with CDS.

The CJNG Leadership Named

So what do we know about the alleged CJNG leaders that this banner named? The first man named in the banner is Julio Alberto Castillo Rodríguez, aliases “El Mayate” or "El Chorro".

POSITION: Overall Leader of CJNG Operations in Colima 

ALIAS: El Chorro

NAME: Julio Alberto Castillo Rodríguez

OTHER ALIASES: El Mayate

STATUS: Active, as of October 2021, named in February 2022 narcomanta

PROFILE: According to US intelligence, El Chorro was born on October 11, 1976, in the municipality of Apatzingán in the state of Michoacán, which makes him 45 years old in 2022. 

He is the older brother of Fernando Castillo Rodríguez, alias “El Toro Valencia”, who is approximately 37 years old in 2022. It should be noted that El Toro Valencia has also been identified as an alleged member of the CJNG. 

El Chorro is married to Jessica Johanna Oseguera González, who is one of the daughters of the overall leader of the CJNG, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho”. 

On June 23, 2015, El Chorro was discovered alongside his brother-in-law, Mencho’s son: Rubén Oseguera González, alias “El Menchito”, during a raid which aimed to capture Menchito. Federal forces found El Menchito and El Chorro inside a vehicle within a subdivision in Zapopan. 

Both men were taken into custody and flown out of the state. On July 1, 2013, shortly after El Chorro and Menchito were arrested, a judge had them both released from custody. The federal raid and their subsequent release is covered in more detail further down below. 

On April 6, 2016, El Chorro was arrested again. This time a 50-man operation had been launched in order to achieve the arrest, with personnel from the Army (SEDENA), the Navy, and the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) participating. The operation took place in the Providencia neighborhood of the city of Guadalajara. 

El Chorro was arrested alongside Édgar Ernesto Moreno Barragán and José Antonio Rodríguez Contreras. The men were found to be in possession of 4 long barrel weapons, one of which had a grenade launcher attachment. 

At the time of the arrest, the federal government released an official statement which alleged that El Chorro was one of the men who “managed the coordination of illicit activities” for the CJNG and said that due to Chorro’s capture “the financial, operational and public relations structure of this criminal group has been significantly affected”. 

On October 27, 2016, El Chorro was designated by the US government under the Kingpin Act along with 8 other important CJNG members. This designation freezes all US-based financial assets they possess and prohibits US citizens from engaging in financial transactions with them. 

In October 2021, the US Department of Treasury released a chart and a statement which alleges four CJNG lieutenants from the Manzanillo area were currently reporting to El Chorro, indicating that as of October 2021, El Chorro is considered to be currently active.  

After El Chorro, the banner goes on to name Aldrin Miguel Jarquín Jarquín, alias “El Chaparrito”. 

POSITION: Lieutenant 

ALIAS: El Chaparrito

NAME: Aldrin Miguel Jarquín Jarquín

OTHER ALIASES: N/A

STATUS: Active, named in February 2022 narcomanta

PROFILE: El Chaparrito is a lieutenant who allegedly reports to the overall leader of the CJNG group in Colima, El Chorro, according to a US Department of Treasury chart released in October 2021. 

According to US intelligence, El Chaparrito was born on November 18, 1976, which makes him 45 years old in 2022. He was born in Nezahualcoyotl, in Mexico state. El Chaparrito is the brother of José Jesús Jarquín Jarquín, alias “R32”, who is another CJNG operator in Colima. 

In June 2020, Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) financially sanctioned El Chaparrito, R32 and Enrique Diaz De Leon Sauceda, alias “El Lobito” for their ties to the CJNG. 

Then in October 2021, El Chaparrito, R32 and El Lobito, were all named by the US government as the most senior members of the CJNG within the state of Colima. All three were designated under the Kingpin Act. The US Department of Treasury statement alleges that another CJNG operator, Fernando Zagal Anton is a subordinate who reports to El Chaparrito, R32 and El Lobito. The statement says El Chorro and the aforementioned men specifically control the port of Manzanillo, which is within the state of Colima and is one of the busiest ports in all of Mexico.

The next person named in the banner is referred to as “Cómala”. This is presumed to be an alias but it is also the name of a town and municipality in northern Colima, making details about who this person is and what their criminal history entails difficult to find. 

After that, the banner mentions “Vaquero”, who is again difficult to currently find details on, due largely to the fact that the prominent Gulf Cartel leader Evaristo Cruz uses the same alias. 

The last name mentioned is Alejandro Ochoa Paz, alias “El Marino”.

POSITION: Lieutenant 

ALIAS: El Marino

NAME: Manuel Alejandro Ochoa Paz

OTHER ALIASES: N/A

STATUS: Active, named in February 2022 narcomanta

PROFILE: El Marino was one of the CJNG operators arrested during a series of Navy operations that occured between February 7 and 8, 2011, in Colima. He was arrested alongside 8 other CJNG operators who were: 

• Jorge Torres Bernal, alias “El Jarocho”
• José Ramón Aguilar González, alias “El Chiquilín”
• Édgar Alejandro Salazar Chávez, alias “El Gary”
• Pablo Guzmán López
• Omar Alexander Rentería Madrueño
• Jorge Ramón Aguilar González
• Daniela Campos Campos “Danis”
• María Eugenia Cobos Escobedo

All the detainees were said to belong to a CJNG group which was operating in the port of Manzanillo that was led by Jorge Torres Bernal, alias “El Jarocho”. El Marino was said to be using the alias “Ochoa” at the time. 

On February 11, 2011, a judge approved the prosecutor’s request to keep the nine alleged CJNG members in custody for 40 days while the prosecution investigated and prepared their cases against the individuals.  

On April 14, 2011, six of detainees were officially arrested because prosecutors determined to try to charge them for carrying firearms and ammo types that are for the exclusive use of the armed forces. 

 

The chart below depicts how the US Treasury Department depicted the CJNG leadership structure in October 2021. How the men mentioned in the narcomanta, such as “El Marino”, figure into this structure is unclear but more details may emerge due to an increased media focus on the cartel activity in Colima because of the recent violence.

Overview Of The 2015 Raid That Captured El Menchito & El Chorro

During the pre-dawn hours of June 23, 2015, pick-up trucks full of teams of five or six men from the Federal Police or the Army (SEDENA) drove into lush neighborhood of Loma Blanca in Zapopan, the western part of the city of Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco. 

They arrived at the private, walled residential subdivision “250 Esparta”. The teams split off from one another, parking and setting up so that the subdivision was surrounded on all sides. Once all the teams were in place, the main entry team, which was made up of 10-15 men, approached the front gate of the subdivision. 

Overall view of the front gate of the 250 Esparta residential subdivision.

View which shows the security booth built into the gate and its relative location.

At approximately 2:15 am, the main entry team made contact with a private security guard who was sitting inside a security booth that was built into the main gate of the subdivision. The soldiers demanded the guard open the front gate for them which he tried arguing against. 

Photo of the security booth, taken after the operation, which shows the adjoining doorway.

View which shows the combination of metal bars and glass at the security booth.

As the main team made contact, other soldiers used paintball guns to shoot the exterior surveillance cameras, which dotted the walls guarding the private subdivision, with paint pellets which covered their view. 

One of the security cameras, this one from the front of the security booth, which was disabled in the operation.

The main entry team did not take time to appeal to the security guard, instead they smashed the tinted glass of the security booth at the gate and opened the door into the security booth. They entered the security booth and a soldier began destroying the video surveillance feeds from the cameras.  Another soldier disconnected the video recording devices within the booth and seized the devices. 

Photo taken after the operation which shows the paper being used to cover over the broken glass the soldiers caused.

A third soldier demanded that the security guard turn off the electricity to the wires which were strung across the top of the walls surrounding the subdivision, forcing the guard to comply and having him kneel on the ground. The phone within the security booth rang, both the soldiers and guards watched it ring and did not pick up. 

View of the white wall with electrified wires that surrounds the back of the residential complex 250 Esparta.

Once the electricity to the fence was cut, a different team of soldiers began to climb the back wall of the private subdivision, which was along Santos Degollado Street. A soldier from a ladder began cutting the wires atop the wall. Dogs inside the subdivision began barking. 

Another view of the back wall of the complex.

The main entry team moved into the subdivision and moved to residence #18 within. There, the soldiers found the son of El Mencho, El Menchito and his brother-in-law El Chorro sitting inside a vehicle, presumably waiting to drive away, having been alerted by the surveillance cameras cutting off and the barking of the dogs. Menchito had recently undergone a plastic surgery procedure on his nose and he still had the bandages. Plastic surgery procedures such as this are commonly done by high-level cartel leadership figures in order to change their appearance from known photos of themselves and hide their real identity. 

Photo taken of El Menchito, the son of El Mencho, presumably at some point after he was apprehended. The nose bandage is due to a recent plastic surgery he underwent.

Photo taken of El Chorro presumably after he was apprehended alongside El Menchito. 

Although the operation was primarily targeting El Menchito, El Chorro had previously been put under preliminary investigation for the crimes of kidnapping and organized crime so both men were arrested. Additionally, various firearm types which were illegal for civilians to possess were found inside the vehicle that Menchito and El Chorro were sitting, which appeared to give the soldiers enough evidence to being in the pair on illegal weapons possession charges. 

Another photo of El Menchito taken after he was apprehended.

The two were taken into the custody of the soldiers and promptly put into a Federal Police helicopter, which flew them out of the state, while escorted by a Black Hawk Helicopter. They were flown to the Federal Attorney General’s Office in Mexico City. 

Another photo taken of El Chorro.

After being questioned, the two were sent to Altiplano prison, located in the state of Mexico.  Shortly after they were arrested, on July 1, 2013, Judge Nadia Villanueva Vázquez ordered that El Menchito and El Chorro be released. 

The judge said she had determined that federal prosecutors “did not prove, not even indirectly, the connection of the defendants to said criminal organization; therefore, there was an insufficiency and deficiency of evidence.” 

The judge also determined the federal raid was an "illegal intrusion" into the home of the detainees "in order to achieve their arrest". She also said the detainees “were not immediately brought before the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office until nine hours after the arrest.” 

Video about the raid. At approximately 00:59 El Chorro can be seen speaking. At approximately, 1:08 El Menchito can be seen speaking.  

Sources: Oscar Adrian, El Sol de Mexico, Infobae, El Occidental, Milenio, 

El Chorro Sources: Mi Morelia, La Prensa, Zeta Tijuana Article 1, Article 2, Informador, Univision, Proceso, Expansion.MX, RFI, Mexican Government Official Statement, Milenio

El Marino Sources: Informador, Excelsior, Proceso, Animal Politico, El Universal, AF Medios, El Diario NTR Pages 10-11, Sie7e de Chiapas Pages 42-43

US Official Releases: US Treasury Manzanillo Sanctions, US Treasury Manzanillo Sanctions Details, US Treasury Manzanillo Sanctions Chart, US Treasury Release on El Mayate